Iowa CCI members are pointing to the action as a sign of growing support for a factory farm moratorium on new and expanding factory farms in Iowa.

The ISAC legislative proposal includes addressing the failure of the Master Matrix and making factory farms pay their fair share of taxes:

“As this subject continues to be of growing concern to some county boards of supervisors, ISAC strongly encourages that this [Master Matrix] review be conducted by 2020.”

“The result is that the construction of any new agricultural building adds zero net value to Iowa’s property tax base. This situation is doubly problematic because large-scale livestock operations and grain facilities impose significant additional costs on counties, such as for road maintenance, without expanding the tax base to help pay for those costs.”

“It’s about time that ISAC recognizes that factory farms are harming Iowa counties – not helping them,” said Barb Kalbach, family farmer and CCI member from Dexter. “We’ve tried small tweaks to the Master Matrix, filing complaints about manure management plans, lobbying against tax exemptions, and the legislature is unwilling to act.”

“As an independent family farmer, I pay my fair share of taxes. My corn and soybean farming operation adds revenue and value to Adair County. Our current tax policies allow factory farms to skirt their fair share of taxes. That forces everyone in the county to make up the difference.” Added Kalbach.

Iowa CCI members have pointed out that factory farms are exempt from all kinds of taxes that independent family farmers aren’t exempted from. Factory farm buildings add no new tax revenues to county coffers. Manure pits get a tax break under the Pollution Control Tax Exemption. Wholesale rates on water and electricity are obtained, and factory farms don’t pay sales tax on key inputs, like feed and energy.

The lack of county revenue from the factory farm industry has forced some counties to change their Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) formula – a local program to offset propoerty taxes.

“My roads are constantly being torn up by the dozens of daily semi-trucks driving past my house. I’m afraid my daughters are going to get in an accident because of the status of the roads,” said Nick Schutt, CCI member and resident of Hardin County.

“Now the Hardin County Supervisors want to change our LOST formula. If implemented, property owners property taxes will increase so the county can keep up with road maintenance,” added Schutt.

The Hardin County Supervisors have proposed changes to the LOST formula. Right now 80% of LOST revenue in Hardin County is going to offset property taxes. The proposed formula would change that to 40% for offsetting property taxes and 40% for maintenance, improvement, and construction of roads and bridges.

The Hardin County LOST formula change will be on the ballot in November.

Last year, CCI members gathered input from Iowans affected by factory farms across the state and filed rulemaking to strengthen the Master Matrix with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR dismissed the entire rulemaking petition without considering changes to protect our air, water, land, and communities.

“We have already submitted our recommended Master Matrix changes to the DNR and the legislature. They refuse to act. That’s why we’re calling for a moratorium on all new and expanding factory farms. We can’t wait for little tweaks anymore. We need to stop the expansion now,” said Emma Schmit, Iowa CCI member in Calhoun County.

As of today, CCI members and allies have successfully organized 23 counties to pass resolutions calling for a moratorium, local control, and/or stronger protections from the factory farm industry.

One Hundred People Gather at Iowa Select Headquarters to Demand an End to Jeff Hansen’s Factory Farm ExpansionFactory farm fighters from across the state stand together calling for a moratorium

Iowa Falls, IA – This afternoon, nearly one hundred people gathered at Iowa Select’s office in Iowa Falls to demand CEO Jeff Hansen withdraw all pending factory farm applications and immediately stop building factory farms. With over 500 factory farms, Iowa Select is the largest pork producer in the state and has been expanding aggressively in the past year, despite mounting public calls for clean water and a moratorium.

“Iowa Select is expanding rapidly all across Iowa with no concern for our rural communities, our health, our water, or our air,” said Julie Duhn, a CCI member from Eldora. “As you can see from all the people here, this is a statewide fightback, and our only hope of stopping this out-of-control industry is if we fight back together. We can’t back down now, or big money corporations like Iowa Select will just continue exploiting us.”

“Factory farms dump pollution on our beautiful state and the industry doesn’t even pretend to care. Our legislators apparently don’t care, either. Since our politicians appear to be bought and sold by the industry, our communities have been stripped of local control with virtually no protections from factory farm pollution,” said Nick Schutt, a CCI member from Alden. “We’re left with no other choice than to take our message directly to Jeff Hansen and demand he stop this out-of-control expansion.”

In 2017, the Hansen family donated $275,000 to the gubernatorial campaign for Governor Kim Reynolds.

Community members delivered a letter to Hansen.

“Building factory farms is not Iowa nice. Polluting our precious water with millions of gallons of untreated manure is not Iowa nice. Sickening our communities with hazardous air emissions is not Iowa nice,” the letter read.

Iowa Select has been the subject of widespread scrutiny because of its massive factory farm expansion over the past year. Iowa CCI identified at least 27 factory farm applications associated with Iowa Select in the past six months, adding to more than 137,000 hogs. Iowa State University’s swine manure calculator estimates that this many finishing hogs would produce 57.5 million gallons of manure per year. These figures may be low, however, because Iowa Select uses various LLCs on their applications, making it difficult to identify all of their factory farms.

In an interview with Successful Farming last year, Hansen acknowledged that the new slaughterhouses coming online – including the Prestage slaughterhouse south of Eagle Grove – are driving his expansion.

The company also regularly builds factory farms just under the threshold that would trigger more state and local oversight. For instance, confinements with 2,500 head of hogs require the Master Matrix – but Iowa Select often avoids it by applying for confinements with 2,490 head of hogs.

“Iowa Select’s huge expansion is just one more sign that we need a factory farm moratorium now,” said Dave Haynes, a CCI member from Duncombe. “We’re at a tipping point. Enough is enough!”

“Iowa Select does not represent our vision for Iowa. We want more family farms, not fewer. We want clean water, not dirty water. We want thriving communities, not corporate-controlled communities,” said Emma Schmit, a CCI member from Rockwell City. “For that to happen, it takes all of us coming together in this battle of David vs. Goliath.”

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is a statewide, grassroots people’s action group that uses community organizing to win public policy that puts communities before corporations and people before profits, politics and polluters. CCI has been fighting to put people first for over 40 years. Follow us on Twitter at @iowacci.

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Bruce Rastetter has applied to build a 4,999 head factory farm about 2 miles North of Williams. This factory farm alone will add 1,642,172 gallons of manure into our watershed.

Hamilton County already has 212 medium or large factory farms.

Enough is enough.

Agribusiness corporations like Summit Farms get the profits—we get the pollution.

Once again, our members called on supervisors in all 99 Iowa counties to pass a resolution allowing them to use the Master Matrix. Supervisors in 89 counties responded to the call and passed the resolution, allowing them to recommend denial of factory farm applications in 2018.

The Master Matrix is one of the few ways counties and citizens can weigh in on factory farm construction in their communities. We know it’s far from perfect, but the Master Matrix is all we have right now. Until we get a moratorium and local control, this is one tool we have to fight factory farms and protect our communities and environment.

For the first time ever, Decatur County Passed the Master Matrix resolution in 2018!

The counties that did not pass the Master Matrix this year have historically abdicated this power by refusing to pass the resolution: Osceola, Plymouth, Warren, Mahaska, Keokuk, Washington, Wapello, Davis, Lee, and Des Moines counties.

The biggest push-back CCI members hear from counties that don’t adopt the Master Matrix is based on the complaint that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources ignores recommendations made by counties, despite their utilization of the Master Matrix. Supervisors and residents in these counties feel as if they have no say in what takes place in their own back yard. This shows the need for local control and for the DNR to honor the voices of Iowa citizens standing up against corporate polluters.

Now, our members are taking the next step to get supervisors to use their influence and voice to challenge this rigged system. One in five counties have called for more protections from the factory farm industry, either by passing resolutions or writing letters to the legislature for a moratorium, local control, and/or strengthening the Master Matrix. CCI members are calling on more county supervisors to join the chorus.

Join the Clean Water Fight

Factory farm proposing to build near you? Have concerns about an existing facility? We can work with you and your community to fight back and stand up for clean air, clean water, and your quality of life.

It’s Master Matrix time again! Seventy-three counties have passed the Master Matrix Resolution so far — which they must do every year by January 31 in order to recommend denial of factory farms.

Has your county taken this important step in the Clean Water Fight?

Figure 1: counties that have passed the Master Matrix Resolution and sent it in to the DNR as of January 22, 2018.

The Master Matrix is one of the few ways counties and citizens can weigh in on factory farm construction in their communities. We know it’s far from perfect. In fact, this year, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and our allies at Food & Water Watch filed a legal petition to finally strengthen this 15-year-old scoring system. The Department of Natural Resources passed the buck.

But here’s the thing: the Master Matrix is all we have right now. Until we get a moratorium and local control, let’s use every tool in our toolbox to fight factory farms.

Here are 3 simple steps to passing the Master Matrix in your county

Call your county supervisors and ask them to put it on their next agenda if they haven’t already.

Join the Clean Water Fight

Factory farm proposing to build near you? Have concerns about an existing facility? We can work with you and your community to fight back and stand up for clean air, clean water, and your quality of life.

At the tail end of 2017, CCI members in Hardin Countysuccessfully pressured their county supervisors to vote 2-1 to deny an Iowa Select hog factory expansion! This happened because the community showed up, spoke out and got organized.

Here’s what Iowa Select did next: They published full-page ads in multiple Hardin County newspapers in attempts to win over the community – even going so far as to say “Manure can actually improve our water quality.”

You know what? We call that a victory, too. We’ve forced the 5th largest hog producer in the country to go on defense. That means we’re making strides in the court of public opinion.

But, we’re not out of the woods yet: the application is headed to the Department of Natural Resources, who will make the ultimate decision on whether or not Iowa Select can expand its factory farm. This means we’ll likely need to go back to the supervisors and ask them to appeal the DNR’s approval of the factory farm.

Here are the next steps to stop this Iowa Select factory farm:

Attend the Supervisor hearing in Eldora (courthouse) on Wednesday, January 10 @ 10am

Let’s keep encouraging the supervisors to do the right thing!

Call the Hardin County Supervisors and ask them to appeal if DNR approves this factory farm

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